An East German machinist, disenchanted by the building of the Wall, plans to use a train to cross the border with family members and other disaffected citizens.

Ein Film von Harald Braun

For 999 years, the mountain spirit Rübezahl has lived deep underground in the Giant Mountains. No one has seen him since. But when he learns that people no longer believe in him and that greed and injustice reign supreme, the lord of the mountains descends into the valley to teach humans a lesson with his magical powers. He harnesses a servant who is working his old horse to death to his carriage and gives him the whip. The mountain spirit turns the gold of his rich and miserly cousin Klaus into stones. Having become hungry on his journey, Rübezahl stops at an inn in the guise of a carter. When the greedy innkeeper, out of sheer greed, nibbles half of the scrambled eggs he has ordered from his plate, Rübezahl demands the eggs he has already paid for back...

1961 film by Fritz Umgelter

The film focuses on life in a World War II German penal battalion camp somewhere in Russia. The convicts include a heroic doctor unjustly convicted of avoiding military service, an officer who retreated against orders, and common criminals. It shows their life in the camp, clearing mines, living in trenches on the front line.

An early work from the filmmaker behind THE TIN DRUM with an intriguing Hans Christian Anderson-style fairy tale aesthetic and voice over narration. SUDDEN WEALTH is a despairing chronicle of a group of starving peasants who finally seize governmental wealth like a dysfunctional group of Robin Hood's Merry Men, only to be betrayed by their inescapable selves and systematically dehumanized (think bucolic Orwell) and reprogrammed by what we'll put under the rubric of God and Country. Extremely striking compositions at times. Only one man (who bears a passing resemblance to a young John Cleese, incidentally) refuses to go gentle into that good night. The last scene is reminiscent of the endings in both Kubrick's PATHS OF GLORY and THE CRUCIBLE with Day-Lewis, yet all even more chilling with its alienating suddenly reappearing voice-over. SUDDEN WEALTH benefits from an especially strong second half with fuller characterization that makes it come alive as a whole for Schlondorff, whose film's evinces extremely striking compositions at times with stationary camera. Especially recommended for those interested in the New German Cinema.